Comparing In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

When Alice Walker was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her with a BB gun in her right eye. She lost the use of that eye and was left with scar tissue that was noticeable. Other kids would ridicule and laugh at her. This caused her to become very withdrawn. She became more of an observer and she started composing poetry in her head. She was afraid to put them on paper because she thought that her siblings would find her writings and tear them up.

In an excerpt from her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings called “Graduation,” Maya Angelou narrates the anticipation surrounding graduation in her small town of Stamps, Alabama. Angelou effectively contrives noteworthy differences between paragraphs 1 through 5 and 6 through 10 through the use of emotional and descriptive diction, powerfully bold comparisons, and a shift in perspective in order to instill pride and dignity in Angelou and her race despite the era’s highlighted social injustices which she endures.

Tragedy struck both of these women at the age of eight. Ms. Walker lost her sight in one eye. Ms. Angelou was raped. Each described the incident as part of a larger work. Ms. Walker related her experience in the body of an essay published

Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are both African American females whose literate has influenced both many African Americans .Beauty When The Other Dancer Is The Self by Alice Walker is a narrative that highlights the key events from the life of the author. These events had a great impact on her. She transitioned from a proud young girl to a girl with low self-esteem person and how she coped with life. Graduation by Maya Angelou is an essay which the authors share with the audience about her eighth-grade graduation. She shares the steps and preparations that were taken for the ceremony. Unfortunately for Maya, her day went on a festive occasion to a sad day because of a speech presented by a guest speaker. Much like Alice Walkers Beauty When The Other Dancer Is the Self and Maya Angelou's Graduation the main characters are both young African American female living in the Southern States during the Segregation era. A time when African American and other people of color were oppressed by Caucasians.While the two essay is about two separate people who experience different challenges and experiences in their life both essays are very similar.

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

Thomas Jefferson once said, “Blacks could deliver themselves of spontaneous bursts of emotion, but were incapable of the intellect and concentration that great art requires.” (Cook, Tatum, 2010). It is widely believed that people of African descent could not read poetry or understand art, let alone create them. Both Alice Walker and Patricia Smith are two great examples of how far, not only as African American have come, but also as African American Women. Whether white, black, or brown we all want to fit in. That is why I chose Alice Walker’s short story, “The Welcome Table” and Patricia Smith’s poem, “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl.” They both have similar, yet different of setting a tone, imagery, symbolism, and point of views of how

Alice Walker usually puts herself into characters that she writes about in her stories. However, you don’t understand this unless you know about her. Staring with this let us find out about who she is and where she came from. When recounting the life of Alice Walker, you find out that she was born to sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia in 1944 and was the baby of eight children. She lost one of her eyes when her brother shot her with a BB gun by accident. She was valedictorian of her class in high school and with that and receiving a scholarship; she went to Spelman, a college for black women, in Atlanta. She then transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York and during her time there went Africa as an exchange

Alice Walker, famed author and civil rights activist, was born to sharecropper parents in Eatonville, Georgia in February of 1944. Alice was the youngest daughter of sharecroppers; her mother also worked as a maid to help support her eight children. At a young age, an incident with her older brothers seriously damaged her eye when her brother Curtis accidentally shot Walker in the eye with a BB gun while playing “cowboys and Indians.” To avoid getting into trouble with their parents, Walker’s frightened brothers made up a story and convinced naive Alice to go along with it. The result was Walker lost the sight in her right eye. A disfiguring white scar developed. Walker became very self-conscious of this mark. This incident molded her early years and caused her to largely withdraw from the world around her. She felt ugly and disfigured, so she found solace in reading and writing poetry. This incident and her modest family roots contributed to her writing style exposed in later works.

Maya Angelou uses background information to manipulate the reader’s emotions. She does this first by telling the story in chronological order. Once the order is established, the reader starts to understand where Angelou is coming from. The other way that she manipulates emotions is by slowly changing the tone throughout the novel. When these factors are put together, they are meant to create sympathy from the reader. A sense of sadness that the black community faced during the 1940’s.

Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in the town of Ward Chapel in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the youngest of eight children and her parents were sharecroppers. When Alice was about 8 years old, she was playing cowboys and Indians with her older brothers Curtis and Bobby and was accidentally shot in the right eye with a pellet from a BB Gun. From this injury, whitish scar tissue formed in the right eye and she became self-conscious of this mark. Because of her self-consciousness, she withdrew from the world and people and instead found a safe place in reading and writing poetry. But when she was fourteen, her older brother William gave her the needed resources and encouragement so that she could undergo eye surgery. Now, there’s a tiny blue sphere where she got shot. Alice lived in the racially segregated part of the south, so naturally she went to an all black school. Alice attended elementary and middle school at East Putnam Consolidated, which was established in 1948 by her father, Willie Lee Walker. Because of the area she lived in, she attended the only high school open to blacks in Eatonton,

Despite the strong presence of the beautiful, powerful, black women in the media, such as Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyoncé Knowles, African American females have been deemed unattractive in society’s eyes. These notions did not develop overnight, but remain as obstacles birthed from slavery. These stereotypes keep the black female incarcerated under the belief that they are not beautiful. However, black women have fought and are fighting these harmful perceptions in many different ways. My project will focus on two artists in particular, Maya Angelou and Kara Walker. I will look at three poems of Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Women, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Still I Rise while examining

Alice Walker was born February 9, 1944, in Eaton Georgia. The youngest of eight, Walker was born into a family of sharecroppers and experienced years of poverty. At four years old, young walker enrolled in first grade and by eight, began exploring and cultivating her writing skills. The same year, Walker suffered a serious injury after taking a BB pellet to the eye while playing with her brothers. The injury resulted in white scar tissue around the eye, which caused the child’s anxiety and low self-esteem. Walker became a recluse, retreating to the confines of her home and mind, and found solace in literature. After reconstructive surgery, Walker regained self-esteem. Upon her reemergence to the world, the teen was greeted with

Born in provincial Eatonton, Georgia, on February 9, 1944, Alice Walker is one of the most adored African-American writers working today. Alice is one of the youngest children out of her eight siblings. At the time where African-American were belittled by socioeconomic, her mother worked as a maid in order to help support the family’s eight children. Furthermore, at the time Alice was 8 eight years old, she suffered a severe incident regarding with her being shot in the right eye with a BB pellet while playing with two of her brothers. Consequently, requiring surgery thus leaving a whitish scar tissue formed in her damaged eye. Prior to the incident, Walker was teased by her appearance and became self-conscious throughout her childhood. Living in the racially divided South, Walker attended segregated schools and was merited the highest accolade in high school being valedictorian of her class. With the financial support of scholarships, she was granted to attend Spelman College in Atlanta. However, received another scholarship thus shifting to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. While at Sarah Lawrence, Walker visited Africa as one of the chosen few young black students to attend the prestigious school as part of a study-abroad

was how Alice Walker grew up. She has written stories about her life, and stories that have had

As an African- American novelist, short–story writer, essayist, poet, critic, and editor, Alice Walker’s plethora of literary works examines many aspects of African American life as well as historical issues that are further developed by Walker’s unique point of view. Writers like Alice Walker make it possible to bring words and emotions to voices and events that are often silenced. Far from the traditional image of the artist, she has sought what amounts to a personal relationship with her readers. She has also taken positions of passionate advocacy, most notably in her campaign against ritual genital mutilation of young women, a practice still institutionalized in many parts of the world, as well as